The Man Who Could Work Miracles

Less well known than the other Korda/HG Wells collaboration Things to Come, this stands the test of time far better. Alexander Korda's anglophilia allows an endearing seriousness to settle round Wells' now clichéd visions, and the film's cosy view of the world doesn't entirely conceal a coldly pragmatic estimation of man's limitations. Roland Young, as a Mr Polly-like shop assistant, the unwitting guinea-pig in a divine experiment, succeeds marvellously in conveying the power-lust of the meek and righteous, and the wooden performances of the rest of the cast fail to rob the film of its resonance and charm. Certainly it's pedantic and disjointed, but its concerns for world peace, and meditations on the dangers and attractions of absolute power, make it a moving epitaph for Baldwin's Britain.